Something is rotten at the heart of artificial intelligence . Machine learning algorithms that spot patterns in huge datasets, hold promise for everything from recommending if someone should be released on bail to estimating the likelihood of a driver having a car crash, and thus the cost of their insurance.

But these algorithms also risk being discriminatory by basing their recommendations on categories like someone’s sex, sexuality, or race . So far, all attempts to de-bias our algorithms have failed.

But a new approach by Niki …